Created by Masahiko Takajo and Creator/TetsuyaSaruwatari, Riki-Oh was serialized in the magazine Business Jump from 1988 to 1990 and later published in 12 volumes. The manga (and the anime too) starts off very much like a homage to fellow martial arts anime, ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', however it eventually [[GrowingTheBeard takes its own pace and voice]] after the first story arc.

It is in the near future - sometime in the 1990s most likely - the world sucks, to say the least. Saiga Riki-Oh is in a privatized prison where MightMakesRight. He soon becomes an enemy of the Four Emperors, four powerful prisoners made head guards, and then the mysterious warden. The first storyline ends much the same way as the infamous ''Film/RikiOhTheStoryOfRicky'' ends-

-BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

Riki-Oh begins an adventure where he tries to find his brother, and find clues towards his past for it seems as though somebody is pulling the strings. Thus Riki-Oh's journal is full of combat where the action never ends. Bodies pile up as the super power martial artist punches and kicks through armies of freaks, robots, androids, monsters, martial artists, ferocious animals, and more!

----!!Riki-Oh contains examples of:

* {{Adaptation Distillation}}: Despite its horrendously low budget, ''Film/RikiOhTheStoryOfRicky'' remains surprisingly faithful to its source material. Whether this is a good or bad thing is debatable.* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler: [[spoiler:He's possibly Riki-Oh's grandfather.]]* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The ultimate BigBad, [[spoiler: Ricky's father]], and his high-ranking henchmen, are essentially just Nazis who use martial arts. And Riki's own brother, "Nachi" is a deliberate pun n the word "Nazi".[[note]]Although his name also translates into 'what thing' from Japanese.[[/note]] He even has a swastika tattoo on his hand. * AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: There are roughly five story arcs in the manga: the Tokyo State Prison arc (chapters 1-13), the Cape arc (14-30), the Return to Tokyo arc (31-41), the Palace of Eternal Youth arc (42-62) and the Antarctica arc (63-75). The Prison Arc has some weird stuff but it's mostly weird martial artists. Then the Cape has some of the weirdest stuff, from elephants to "power readings", to android workers, to cyborgs, to an underground fighting arena, with the big bad being a super psychic. The third arc tones it down and has a more noir feeling with villains more like super-powered freaks than martial artists. The final two arcs are when things truly get insane. Each arc different? Yes. Each Arc awesome? Yes.* ArcWords: Chris[[spoiler:tos]].* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Apparently the swastika is a symbol for atheism and the six-pointed star is a symbol of theism. Oh, and they also represent the universe collapsing and exploding into existence respectfully (destruction and creation). Oh, and God gave the world 6000 the years, and if the Earth isn't destroyed year 2000, it means "his plan" didn't succeed according to the Holy Bible. There are just so many egregious examples of the manga not doing the research on Christianity that it's almost hilarious. It doesn't even get the message of the "sacrificing of Isaac" story right. * AwesomeMcCoolname: In Japanese, Riki-Oh means "Strength King". Doubles as a MeaningfulName.* BigBad: Each arc has one. Prison - The Warden; The Cape - [[spoiler: Nachi]], and so on. * ButNotTooForeign: Riki-Oh is part Jewish, which is a key point in the story.* CannibalClan: The Disciples of the Wolf Commandments. Granted, [[OurWereWolvesAreDifferent they see themselves as wolves, but are basically completely human]].* CatchPhrase: "I'll send your karma to hell!"** And for the villains: "DIIIIEEE, RIKI-OHHHHH!"* CharlesAtlasSuperPower and MadeOfIron: Oh so many. Buried alive for a week at one point; when he was unearthed, he effortlessly shattered his chains and somersaulted to his feet. He also had his arm sliced, and stitched it mid-fight without being hampered by the injury at all. Overcame an instant-death technique through sheer willpower. After defeating the big bad, he single-handedly put a massive hole through the prison wall and walked to freedom.** There's more. The arm slice cut his tendons, which he tied back together. He's stitched his own wounds with a length of a chain link fence.* CrapsackWorld: In a world where Tokyo cannot be repaired from earthquakes, heavy depressions all over the place, wild gangs, drugs are everywhere, chemical and nuclear waste is unchecked, and worse - there's a powerful hidden group of upper class that is TRYING to destroy the world. Believe it or not, ''there is still hope''.* CursedWithAwesome: Sure Riki-Oh may hurt his family but he gets to punch people's brains out!* DeceptiveDisciple: [[spoiler: The warden.]]* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Eisaku may look like a gorilla, but he's a real mama's boy. Although relatively speaking, he's not "bad".* {{Expy}}: Saiga Riki-Oh is basically [[FistOfTheNorthStar Kenshiro]] by a different name and long-ish hair.** M. Bison/Vega from StreetFighter is an expy of the villain Washizaki, who himself is an expy of the BigBad Yasunori Kato from ''Doomed Megalopolis''[=/=]''Literature/TeitoMonogatari''** Umibozu, a fat GiantMook who appears at the of Vol. 3, is the manga's version of Mr. Heart from ''Fist of the North Star'' (only taller), right down to his ability to absorb Riki's punches with his fatness. Riki-oh is even forced to defeat Umibozu the same way Kenshiro defeated Mr. Heart; by using a technique which slices through flesh.** The Disciples of the Wolf Commandment are a gang that patterned themselves after a pack of wolves, just like the Fang Clan also from ''North Star''.** there is a GiantMook that is Conan the Barbarian, the mech from ''Franchise/RoboCop'' with Deadlock from the ABC Warriors rideing it * FullFrontalAssault: Mukai in his first confrontation with Riki. This would be the "unconcerned with human expectations" variety, not the "raging primordial beast" variety.* {{Gorn}}: Not as bad as most cases since the extreme [[TestosteronePoisoning gar]] makes it over-the-top (the characters barely show pain), but it is still one of the most graphic manga out there.* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The 1988 manga, set in the 1990s at least, has Washizaki speculate that the theist liberals of America and atheist communists are going to destroy each other.* ImAHumanitarian: Mizuguchi has a killer/chef mook dedicated only to this, and some of his comments suggest that he's quite the gourmet, raising his own food to pick the right moment to eat it.** The warden tried to feed some of the prisoners to other prisoners as mincemeat, much to their horror. He's heavily implied to have done it regularly [[FridgeHorror without them being aware of it]].* ImprobableWeaponUser: Several instances, but Barakido's remote-controlled pitchfork kite takes the cake.* InvincibleHero: Combining this with an extreme case of GoodIsNotSoft is basically Riki-Oh's shtick in the first OVA. And after the first prison in the manga, he's also this, too. Oh-so-invincible.* {{Ki Attacks}}: Riki-Oh's Naike Kenpou specializes in this.** {{KamehameHadoken}}: "KANTSUU REPPA!!!"* MadeOfPlasticine: Pretty much every death in the series involves someone being ripped/sliced/exploded into at least four distinct pieces.* MindOverMatter: Nachi.* MyOwnGrandpa: [[spoiler:It turns out that Mukai, Riki-oh and Nachi's father, is an artificially bred man-god from the year 2500 who was created by one of Riki-oh's descendants.]]* MonsterClown: One of the elite mooks at the Palace of Gold seems to be based on The Joker personality-wise [[spoiler: and gets a pretty brutal death because of it]].* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler: As it turns out, [[TheChessmaster Mukai was inciting]] just about ''everything''--even some of the historical atrocities throughout the earlier part of the twentieth century--in an attempt to obliterate humanity. As to why he's doing this...because of the [[KnightTemplar religious fanatics who bred him to begin with]], he believes that God erred badly in creating a physical, independent humanity in the first place. He believes the only way for paradise to be restored is to reduce humanity back to a strictly spiritual form so they can [[AssimilationPlot merge back with God]]. Long story short, Mukai believes God should ''never have created anything in the first place, because anything other than eternal stasis was doomed to compromise perfection.'']]* PersonOfMassDestruction: When Riki-Oh and Nachi touch their marked hands together, it creates a natural disaster, i.e. tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.* PreAssKickingOneLiner: "I'LL SEND YOUR EVIL KARMA TO HELL! PASS ON TO THE NEXT LIFE!"* RedRightHand: Nachi's swastika birthmark. Also Riki-Oh's Star of David birthmark, though to a lesser degree.* SayMyName: Riki-Oh does this to his brother throughout the second story arc. Villains do it to Riki-Oh ''constantly.''* SuperStrength: Riki-Oh grows exponentially stronger when he's angry. Since he can already punch holes in people without trying, this is saying something... * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Two of the four head prison guards were still alive at the end of the Prison Arc. [[spoiler: One of them ''with a pitchfork stuck to the back of his head and mouth''.]]* WifeHusbandry: Mizuguchi tries this with Iwato's daughter, more for rape and [[ImAHumanitarian other reasons]] than for marriage. [[spoiler: Thankfully, Riki-Oh saves the day.]]* YouFailBiologyForever: Many, many examples. Notable ones are a mook still talking, and trying to kill Riki-Oh after having [[YourHeadAsplode his brain punched away]], and another one being completely operative after his heart was torn from his chest, with seemingly no ill effect, only to die immediately when Riki-Oh finally crushes the heart, still in his hand. It should be noted that this is not even handwaved as magic or superpower. It just... kinda happens.----